Former Ambassador David Friedman, among others, slammed Trump’s meeting with Ye and Fuentes. Trump claimed he “knew nothing about” the latter. The White House also weighed in .
By World Israel News Staff
David Friedman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel under the Trump administration, called out his former boss for socializing with antisemitic rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, aka Ye, and white supremacist commentator Nick Fuentes.
“According to a source, far-right extremist Nick Fuentes was spotted with Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago. West tweeted last night he met with Trump at the club. West and Fuentes were also seen together at Miami airport,” Politico reporter Meredith McGraw wrote on Twitter.
West sparked outrage last month with a now-deleted tweet saying that he was going to go “death con 3” on Jewish people. Rather than apologizing, he doubled down on his antisemitic statements.
Fuentes, who was labeled a white supremacist by the U.S. Justice Department, has questioned the Holocaust on several occasions and mocked it as well, once comparing the slaughter of Jews in gas chambers to “cookies baking in an oven.”
Friedman, among others, condemned the meeting.
“To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this. Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable. I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong,” he tweeted on Friday.
“I condemned Barak Obama associating with Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright. This is no different. Antisemites deserve no quarter among American leaders, right or left,” Friedman added.
The White House issued a statement on Saturday condemning the meeting.
“Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America — including at Mar-a-Lago,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates stated.
“Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned,” he said.
“This is just awful, unacceptable conduct from anyone, but most particularly from a former President and current candidate,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tweeted.
Trump claimed on Truth Social, the social media platform he created, that he was unaware Fuentes would be attending the dinner meeting reportedly arranged by West and that he “knew nothing about” the Holocaust-denying White Supremacist. In fact, Fuentes has been one of Trump’s staunch supporters.
“This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said. “Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”
Trump called the meeting ‘uneventful.”
West, on the other hand, said the former president was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes.”
After the meeting, West announced his 2024 presidential campaign and said that Trump “screamed” at him.